i ran the test, and i see no problems:

12/07 22:07[root@proxy2-prod-ue1 ~]# grep app /etc/hosts
12/07 22:07[root@proxy2-prod-ue1 ~]# time ./gethostbyname.bin webapp02c webapp02c webapp06c webapp06c roapp02c roapp02c
10.51.23.17 webapp02c.prod.romeovoid.com
10.51.23.17 webapp02c.prod.romeovoid.com
10.195.76.80 webapp06c.prod.romeovoid.com
10.195.76.80 webapp06c.prod.romeovoid.com
10.96.23.87 roapp02c.prod.romeovoid.com
10.96.23.87 roapp02c.prod.romeovoid.com

real 0m0.009s
user 0m0.000s
sys 0m0.000s